Scrooged

( 1988)

I got a call from my agent, who said, “Read this script. Bill Murray’s com­mit­ted to it.” I thought it had great pos­si­bil­i­ties, but I wasn’t sure. My agent called back and said, “Bill Murray wants to meet you. He’ll be at your house around nine o’clock.” I said, “Okay…” It’s nine o’clock, nine- thirty, ten o’clock, ten- thirty… No, Bill Murray. I said, “Fuck this.” Just as I’m about to go to bed the gate bell rings. It’s Bill. He said, “I gotta see ya. Let me in, please.” I let him in and he just started talk­ing about ev­ery­thing that had noth­ing to do with the screen­play. Like there wasn’t even a movie. He was to­tally charm­ing and funny and de­light­ful. We had a cou­ple of drinks and a hit on a joint or some­thing. He said, “Where’s Lau­ren?” I said, “She’s sleep­ing.” I went to the bath­room and the next thing I hear is Lau­ren yelling up­stairs. Bill had gone up­stairs to the bed­room to wake her up… I just fell in love with this crazy guy. It was like that mak­ing the movie. He was just an amaz­ing, tal­ented ge­nius, for whom stuff came out of nowhere.